serve to show what they must have been all, from top to bottom the first and second, brilliant white or yellow limestone, smooth from top to bottom, instead of those rude, disjointed masses which their stripped sides now present; the third all glowing with the red granite from 5 the First Cataract. As it is, they have the barbarous look of Stonehenge; but then they must have shone with the polish of an age already rich with civilization, and that the more remarkable when it is remembered that these granite blocks which furnished the outside of the third 10 and inside of the first, must have come all the way from the First Cataract.

It also seems, from Herodotus and others, that these smooth outsides were covered with sculptures. Then you must build up or uncover the massive tombs, now 15 broken, or choked with sand, so as to restore the aspect of vast streets of tombs, like those on the Appian Way, out of which the Great Pyramid would rise like a cathedral above smaller churches. Lastly, you must inclose the two other pyramids with stone precincts and gigantic gate- 20 ways, and above all you must restore the Sphinx, as he (for it must never be forgotten that a female Sphinx was almost unknown) was in the days of his glory.

Even now, after all that we have seen of colossal statues, there was something stupendous in the sight of 25 that enormous head-its vast projecting wig, its great ears, its open eyes, the red color still visible on its cheek, the immense projection of the whole lower part of its face. Yet what must it have been when on its head there was the royal helmet of Egypt; on its chin the royal beard; 30

when the stone pavement by which men approached the Pyramids ran up between its paws; when immediately under its breast an altar stood, from which the smoke went up into the gigantic nostrils of that nose now vanished from the face, never to be conceived again. All this is known with certainty from the remains which actually exist deep under the sand on which you stand, as you look up from a distance into the broken but still expressive features.

And for what purpose was this Sphinx of sphinxes called into being as much greater than all other sphinxes as the Pyramids are greater than all other temples or tombs? If, as is likely, he lay couched at the entrance, now deep in sand, of the vast approach to the second, that is, the central Pyramid, so as to form an essential part of this immense group; still more, if, as seems possible, there was once intended to be (according to the usual arrangements which never left a solitary sphinx any more than a solitary obelisk) a brother sphinx on the northern side, as this on the southern side of the approach, its situation and significance were worthy of its grandeur. And if, further, the Sphinx was the giant representative of royalty, then it fitly guards the greatest of royal sepulchers; and, with its half-human, half-animal form, is the best welcome and the best farewell to the history and religion of Egypt. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster.

66

For further readings about the pyramids, see Proctor's "The Great Pyramid," and Rawlinson's History of Ancient Egypt."

5

OLD IRONSIDES.

"Old Ironsides was the affectionate name applied to the United States frigate "Constitution," a vessel greatly distinguished for its service in the war of 1812. In 1830, it was proposed, since she was no longer of service, to break her up, and sell her timbers. Dr. Holmes, then a young man just from college, gave expression to the popular fecling of the time in the following poem. This produced so general an opposition to the order that the old ship was saved.

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,

And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;

Beneath it rung the battle

shout,

And burst the cannon's

roar;

The meteor of the ocean air

Shall sweep the clouds no

more.

Her deck

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

once red with heroes' blood,

Where knelt the vanquished foe,

When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below

No more shall feel the victor's tread,

Or know the conquered knee ;

The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave:
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail;

And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

- Oliver Wendell Holmes.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

There are few writers for whom the reader feels such personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith, for few have so eminently possessed the magic gift of identifying themselves with their writings. We read his character in every page and grow into familiar intimacy with him as we read. The artless benevolence that beams throughout his works; the whimsical, yet amiable views of human life and human nature; the unforced humor, blending so happily with good feeling and good sense, and singularly dashed at times with a pleasing melancholy; even the very nature of his mellow, and flowing, and softly tinted style, all seem to bespeak his moral as well as his intellectual qualities, and make us love the man at the same time that we admire the author. While the productions